United States GP - Post-race press conference - Pt.2

18 November 2012

Questions from the floor

Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto, Motor und Sport)Sebastian, your teammate stopped with another alternator problem, you probably heard that over the radio. To what extent is that a concern? It seems to be an unsolved problem.

Sebastian Vettel:I don't know what happened to him, so I need to check, obviously. The first info I only get now, so it's hard to comment but in case it was the alternator, it's not good news but I think we've managed the last couple of races pretty well so I'm sure it should be easy to explain, to find the problem. After Monza, I think we learned the lesson and we should be prepared enough for next week.

Q: (Leonid Novozhilov - F1 Live)To all three of you: with what feelings will you go to the last race in Brazil?

Lewis Hamilton:For me, it's excitement that we have a good car and hopefully we can try to compete again with these guys. I'm obviously not fighting for the championship. It's maybe more exciting for these guys but for me, I'm just having fun.

Sebastian Vettel:I think pretty much the same as Lewis: excited because the car seems to work very well, good enough to fight for a win. We've been very quick in Brazil the last couple of years so plenty to look forward to. On top of that, we increased our lead in the championship today so I think we are in the best possible position.

Fernando Alonso:We will try to go to Brazil with the possibility to fight for the World Championship which is something that we fight for all through the year and we arrived in that fantastic position. Only Sebastian is in a better position than us but we should be proud of ourselves so try to enjoy the Brazil race and do our best, fight all the race and see what is the outcome at the end.

Q: (Adam Hay–Nicholls - Metro)Seb, what were you complaining about when Lewis overtook you?

Sebastian Vettel:I think you misunderstood. I wasn't complaining about Lewis, obviously. I wasn't too happy send a nice big invitation to Lewis when I obviously had to go through Karthikeyan and he was basically right behind at the DRS zone; to do a big difference within one corner is hardly possible and then he took that opportunity - fair enough - down the straight and passed me. I tried to defend, I moved to the inside but I knew that he would have so much more speed that he can pick either side, so it didn't really matter what I was doing and after that, I was obviously not too happy, because on all the laps before I tried to manage the gap to him, tried to manage the tyres until the end of the race, to be able to attack towards the last couple of laps. We had, I think, something like 20 laps, 15 laps to go at the time. It was not targeted at Lewis, it was more targeted at the backmarker which, as I said, gave a nice big envelope with an invitation to Lewis.

Q: (Sarah Holt - CNN.com world sport)It was a similar question, actually, but we don't often see you, Sebastian, being very emotional but we heard you being emotional on the radio there. A question about the pressures you're feeling. You've been in this position twice before, is it harder third time around?

Sebastian Vettel:I don't think it had anything to do with that in that moment. I was really thinking about the points that could make a difference today or next week or the championship. I wanted to win today. I had a fantastic race, I was very happy, enjoyed the fight with Lewis a lot and obviously through that lost the lead. Equally knew that we can get it back but as it turned out it was extremely difficult. We had the same pace so I think I was probably in the same boat as Lewis, the first half of the race where I was just trying to get close enough to try and get the move done but that didn't happen until the end. I think many times it's difficult for you to judge what's going on because not all the messages get broadcast so we do communicate quite a bit during the race - sometimes calmer, sometimes not so calm so at that moment, obviously, I wasn't too happy to lose the lead.

Q: (David Estrada – Port Arthur News)Lewis, welcome to the United States; you had celebration champagne. Are you going to have a celebration barbecue tonight?

Lewis Hamilton:I had a few burgers last night so I was nice and heavy today! I tell you what, I'm so happy to be here. We've had such a great weekend. I actually don't really drink. I had a little bit of champagne, it doesn't really taste that good. Fernando said it was 7-Up or Sprite at the last race, it wasn't the same this time. Tonight, hopefully I can get together with the team tonight. We already did last night but I'm sure we will celebrate tonight.

Sebastian Vettel:He said earlier he... and I saw him exchanging phone numbers with the girls on the podium. He said earlier we'll have a good time tonight!

Lewis Hamilton:I think it was the other way around actually! He stayed behind. That's why we were late here.

Sebastian Vettel:He was first, you know, not just in the race but also picking up the girls.